Scott Horsley

Scott Horsley is a White House correspondent for NPR News. He reports on the policy and politics of the Obama Administration, with a special emphasis on economic issues.

The 2012 campaign is the third presidential contest Horsley has covered for NPR. He previously reported on Senator John McCain's White House bid in 2008 and Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Thanks to this experience, Horsley has become an expert in the motel shampoo offerings of various battleground states.

Horsley took up the White House beat after serving as a San Diego-based business correspondent for NPR where he covered fast food, gasoline prices, and the California electricity crunch of 2000. He reported from the Pentagon during the early phases of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before joining NPR in 2001, Horsley was a reporter for member station KPBS-FM, where he received numerous honors, including a Public Radio News Directors' award for coverage of the California energy crisis.

Earlier in his career, Horsley worked as a reporter for WUSF-FM in Tampa, Florida, and as a news writer and reporter for commercial radio stations in Boston and Concord, New Hampshire. Horsley began his professional career as a production assistant for NPR's Morning Edition.

Horsley earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an MBA from San Diego State University.

More than 1,000 Libertarians from around the country have converged on a hotel in Orlando, Fla., for a long weekend of politicking, strategizing, and seminars with titles like "How to Abolish Government in Three Easy Steps." They'll also choose their nominee for president on Sunday. Five men are competing to be the Libertarian standard-bearer, including a software tycoon, a magazine editor, and the former Republican governor of New Mexico. "Libertarian conventions are always exciting," says...

President Obama wraps up a weeklong Asia trip on Friday with a historic visit to Hiroshima, Japan. Obama will be the first sitting president to visit the city synonymous with the deadly nuclear age that began there more than seven decades ago. Obama said he plans to "honor all those who were lost in World War II and reaffirm our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will accompany Obama, told reporters the trip "will no doubt create further...

In the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Tuesday, President Obama celebrated the dynamism of the fast-growing country. He also met with dissidents and encouraged the government to improve its human rights record. Like a growing number of American tourists, Obama seems to be enjoying himself in Vietnam. The president snacked on noodles in Hanoi's Old Quarter on Monday night but admited he didn't hazard a dash across the busy streets, buzzing with motorbikes. Obama's not the first American...

As a former senator and secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has a long foreign policy track record. That record suggests she'd be more hawkish than President Obama — and many of her fellow Democrats. But don't expect her to go overboard. She knows all too well the political price that can come with military intervention. Here are four things to know about Clinton's approach to foreign policy: (We've previously broken down Donald Trump's and Bernie Sanders ' approaches to foreign policy.) 1....

President Obama is delivering the commencement address Sunday at Rutgers University in New Jersey, on the 250th anniversary of the school's founding. It's one of the last times Obama will speak to a graduating class while he's in office. But it's by no means his first. In fact, the president has delivered nearly two dozen commencement speeches over the past seven years. A look back at that collection of commencement remarks helps reveal the problems and promises of the days they were...

The Obama administration issued guidance to schools Friday, saying they must allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The administration acknowledges this is "new terrain" for some people and says it wants to help school districts avoid running afoul of civil rights laws. The Department of Justice is already in a legal fight with North Carolina over its so-called bathroom law. By reaching out to all 50 states, the administration appears to be upping...

President Obama is on his way to Flint, Mich., to get a firsthand look at federal efforts to help people in the city where dangerous levels of lead were discovered in the tap water last year. Obama will meet with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder as well as 8-year-old Mari Copeny, who's better known as "Little Miss Flint." The third-grader wrote to the president in March saying, "I am one the children that is effected by this water and I've been doing my best to march in protest and to speak out for...

President Obama leaves this afternoon for Saudi Arabia, and what could be an uncomfortable visit. King Salman and neighboring leaders are unhappy with the president's overtures to their regional enemy, Iran . And Obama only added to that tension with a magazine interview that was anything but diplomatic. "It's going to be a tough visit," says Ilan Goldenberg of the Center for a New American Security. In a lengthy interview with the Atlantic Magazine's Jeffrey Goldberg , Obama said the Saudis...

This week, as part of our A Nation Engaged project, NPR and some member stations will be talking about trade — both on the campaign trail and in communities around the country. Trade has become a target this presidential campaign season. Both Democrats and Republicans have been attacking trade agreements as "unfair" to American workers. That resonates in places like Massena, N.Y., where voters cast primary ballots this week. For more than a century, the Alcoa company has been making aluminum...

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has focused much of his presidential campaign on economic issues. He describes income inequality as the great economic and political issue of our time. Less has been written about Sanders' approach to foreign policy. Here's a quick summary: 1. He was against the Iraq War (but he is not a pacifist) Sanders has highlighted his opposition to the war in Iraq throughout the campaign as a way to draw a distinction with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. "I don't...

In recent days, Donald Trump has given a series of in-depth interviews shedding some light on what he means by the policy he calls "America First." The interviews are giving a clearer picture of the Republican presidential hopeful's approach to foreign policy. Here are four things to know about Donald Trump's foreign policy: 1. It's unpredictable ... by design Reporters covering Donald Trump never know what he'll say or do next. And that's the way he likes it. Trump thinks it's an advantage...

For most of the past half century, Americans were generally prohibited from traveling to Cuba. And those who snuck in — via third countries — were careful to avoid tell-tale marks in their passports. That's no longer the case, though. Since the U.S. government began loosening restrictions 15 months ago, there's been a surge of Americans traveling to the island: 161,000 in 2015. That's expected to grow when scheduled air service resumes later this year. Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Transcript STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The president is scheduled to deliver a speech in Havana, Cuba, which is where he's been traveling after the restoration of relations there. NPR's Scott Horsley is traveling with the president. Scott, good morning. SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve. INSKEEP: Who's the president talking to? HORSLEY: He's going to be addressing just over a thousand invited guests at the Gran Teatro, overlooking...

One of the last vestiges of the Cold War was buried Sunday, when President Obama set foot in Cuba. He's the first American president to visit the island since Calvin Coolidge, 88 years ago. "Que bola', Cuba?" Obama tweeted in an informal greeting, moments after Air Force One touched down at Havana's Jose Marti Airport. "Looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people." Holding an umbrella against a light rain, Obama and the first family were greeted by Cuban Foreign...

When Obama walks off Air Force One onto the red carpet at Jose Marti airport in Havana Sunday, he'll be taking another big step towards normal relations with the island, and kicking another hole in the wall of isolation that the U.S. spent decades trying to build around Cuba. "The Cold War has been over for a long time," Obama said, before his historic handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro in Panama last year. "I'm not interested in having battles that, frankly, started before I was born...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOjeMlEjbvg President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court is already making telephone calls to senators, hoping to win a confirmation hearing. Merrick Garland will start making in-person visits to the Capitol on Thursday. That's the normal order of business for a high-court nominee. But with many Senate Republicans insisting they won't consider Garland's nomination, the White House is also taking its case to the American public. The PR campaign for Garland...

The U.S. labor market has recovered faster than expected, though that strength is tempered by economic challenges both at home and abroad, according to an annual assessment from the president's Council of Economic Advisers. The 430-page "Economic Report of the President" released today summarizes recent developments in the economy and highlights areas where the administration sees room for policy improvements. This year's report notes that the unemployment rate has fallen more quickly than...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Transcript ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: President Obama will visit Havana, Cuba, next month. When he does, it will be an exclamation point to the diplomatic overtures that ended Cuba's isolation 14 months ago. The president and first lady will follow the tens of thousands of other Americans who have visited the island since then. But the two Cuban-Americans hoping to be the republican nominee for president are speaking out against the trip....

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Transcript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: President Obama says the Constitution is pretty clear about what's supposed to happen now that there's a vacancy on the Supreme Court. He reiterated his plan to nominate a successor for Justice Antonin Scalia who died over the weekend, and he challenged Senate Republicans to give that nominee a hearing and a timely up or down vote. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now. And Scott, the president took...

President Obama unveils his 2017 budget proposal today. It's an aspirational blueprint that details how he would set priorities if he controlled the government's checkbook ... which he doesn't. "This budget is not about looking back at the road we have traveled," Obama said. "It is about looking forward." But congressional Republicans are looking past the president. House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the budget as "a progressive manual for growing the federal government at the expense of...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Transcript AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Here's a startling statistic. Every day in America, more than 50 people die from an overdose of prescription pain medication. Some drug users who start out with pain pills later turn to heroin, which claims another 29 lives each day. President Obama plans to ask lawmakers for hundreds of millions of dollars to combat this epidemic when he releases his budget next week. NPR's Scott Horsley reports....

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Transcript ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Part of that revolution is the idea that the government should provide health insurance for everyone. The so-called single-payer model is used in other countries like Canada and South Korea. But policy makers in this country have never given it a serious look. NPR's Scott Horsley looks at why. SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Bernie Sanders make a simple argument for overhauling the health care system. The United...

President Obama says one of his biggest regrets is the growing polarization in American politics. "I have, as president obviously, done soul-searching about what are things I could do differently to help bridge some of those divides," Obama told supporters at a town hall meeting in Baton Rouge last week. And he's not the only one worried by the deepening fault lines. "It's the worst I've seen it in 50 years," says former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott. He's just written a book on the...